BRIGHTON, MI — A young Brighton woman recalls the emotional sting and tears she endured after being fired as a Boy Scout camp counselor last summer because she is gay.

Lauren Jasenak, 19, says it was July 18, 2012 when her boss, Bill Licht, called her into his office at D-Bar-Scout Ranch in Metamora where she had been working and living.

Jasenak said she was in the office for "quite a long time" and questioned repeatedly about her sexual preference.

"At first, my reaction was to deny," she said. "Because when someone is asking for your sexual orientation, that can't be a good thing."

She finally admitted through tears, she is a lesbian.

Administrators requested she sign a statement attesting to her lesbianism. Jasenak said she asked to get back to them the following day, but was told it must be signed immediately.

They got the teen's signature, packed her off with her pet rabbit, Thumper, and no way home.

A friend eventually came from two hours away to collect Jasenak and her traveling companion.

With the help of the Equality Michigan, a gay-friendly advocacy organization, Jasenak filed a formal complaint against the camp with the Center for Equal Opportunity last August and launched a national effort, along with others, to convince the Boy Scouts of America to change their exclusive sexual orientation policy.

Boy Scouts of America is considering a change to its bylaws that
exclude gay scouts, but it would maintain a ban on gay counselors
and troop leaders.

Jasenak, who joined Boy Scout Venturing program for boys and girls 14 to 21 five years ago, said she wants the policy to allow "everyone" — Scouts, counselors, employees and volunteers — to participate in the organization regardless of their sexual orientation. She feels the proposed change doesn't go far enough.

During the week of March 20, 1,400 voting members will decide on the possible change.

The 1910-founded organization received responses from nearly 200,000 of its nearly 2.6 million members voicing their opinions on the policy during a preliminary review.

By a 61-34 margin, respondents supported the current ban and the organization estimates it would lose up to 350,000 members should the policy be changed, according to the Associated Press.

"There was a lot of prying and crying on my end," says Jasenak, recalling the day she and the Boy Scouts of America parted ways.

Jasenak said she had a conversation with a woman, her cabin-mate and an administrator at the camp, during which she revealed she was a lesbian. Jasenak asked that the exchange remain private but believes it didn't. She was let go the day after the Boy Scouts reaffirmed their policy banning gay counselors last July.

It wasn't the first time Jasenak encountered intolerance of the gay community while at the camp. She says she's worked at other camps and openly told people she was a lesbian in the without it becoming an issue.

At D-Bar-Scout, Jasenak said she heard bigoted, anti-gay remarks frequently — more than, "that's so gay," she said — until one day during diversity training session for camp counselors when she voiced her concerns.

"It was clear that I was compassionate to LGBT people and not to harass them," she said. Afterward, "everyone stopped using the language and was much kinder and completely turned their attitudes around."

Later the same month she was sent home.

Jasenak started a Change.org petition asking the Boy Scouts to revise their policy. It had received 4,600 signatures of support as of Wednesday evening.

"As a 19-year-old, I am still in disbelief that the Boy Scouts discriminated against me," she writes on the petition site. "I didn't even realize you could be kicked out of the Boy Scouts for being gay.

"I felt alone and scared, but most importantly, I had no idea how my rabbit, Thumper, and I were going to get home."

MLive left messages with Richard Fisher, the chief executive officer for the Boy Scouts Great Lakes Council and Bill Licht, D-bar-A Scout Ranch camp director, but had not received a response as of Wednesday evening.

Do you have a problem with the Boy Scouts hiring gay camp counselors? Do you have a problem with them opening membership to gay scouts?